Delhi’s IGI airport set to see over 1,500 flights a day by May

The airport operator is undertaking high-intensity runway operation, which could increase current aircraft movements by 15% to 1515 each day. The country’s busiest airport handles 1,324 flight movements currently.

GMR-owned IGI airport is the 16th busiest airport in the world and has handled 58.3 million passengers in FY19 so far. Several airlines face slot constraints due to limited capacity available at the aerodrome. (File/Reuters)

Flight movements at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport is set to go beyond 1,500 flights per day by May, a top Delhi International Airport executive has said.

The airport operator is undertaking high-intensity runway operation, which could increase current aircraft movements by 15% to 1515 each day. The country’s busiest airport handles 1,324 flight movements currently.

“We have got capacity constraint on both air side and terminal side. Currently, 25% of Delhi’s air space is a no-fly zone due to VIP areas, Hindon airbase. We are training the ATC (air traffic controller) for the high-intensity runaway operation to tackle air side capacity constraint. The target is to increase our capacity by 200 flight movements in the next one-two months,” DIAL CEO Videh Kumar Jaipuriar said at the CII Aviation Conclave 2019.

GMR-owned IGI airport is the 16th busiest airport in the world and has handled 58.3 million passengers in FY19 so far. Several airlines face slot constraints due to limited capacity available at the aerodrome.

DIAL is scheduled to undertake airport expansion work in the coming months. It includes expansion of Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 and the construction of a new runway and taxiways.

Jaipuriar said the expansion work is likely to be completed in the 38 months. “Our terminal side rated capacity is 66 million passengers per annum (mppa). With some debottlenecking we have taken it to 70 mppa. We don’t expect terminal to be ready in the next three years. Till that time we are exploring ways to maintain high passenger service quality,” Jaipuriar explained.

The operator expects the expansion to take the overall handling capacity of the airport to 85 mppa.